Opening show

　　As the 14th “Chinese Bridge” — Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students heats up, the third round of its preliminary contest took place on July 8. Hostess of China Central Television (CCTV) Xu Li, Dean of the Confucius Institute at Germany's Heidelberg University Ding Lei, and well-known actor Yue Yueli were appointed judges for the event. 48 contestants from Asia and Oceania competed for entrance into the next round.

　　As the competition opened with motivating dances, the contestants made their appearance in seven groups. Each was given 90 seconds to impress the judges with a speech. Contestants from neighboring Asian countries displayed their distinctive advantages in Chinese expressions, showing extraordinary strength with clear and decent articulation. However, contestants from Oceania countries gave no sign of conceding, demonstrating accurate pronunciation of the four Chinese tones and impeccable usage of sentence types.

　　Asian contestants including Kang Li from Jordan, Shen Suyun from South Korea, Wei Kaidi from Thailand, Yi Lihong from Tajikistan, Zhou Xianxiang from Singapore, and Kang Xiaoxin from Uzbekistan, together with Oceania contestants including Ni Dongmou and Mai Kaiping from New Zealand, Gao Tingting and Li Huilin from Australia advanced to the next round.